Hawk in the house!

Free at last:
Seconds before release, Josh Froneberger removes the t-shirt he used to hood and calm the Cooper’s hawk that found its way into a Washington Hall stairwell. A classmate documented the July 20 rescue and release with Froneberger’s cell phone camera.

Fledgling raptor is removed unharmed from Washington Hall

On July 20, Josh Froneberger '11 was walking up the
Washington Hall stairs to Spanish class when Margaret Turner, a classmate,
stopped him.

"She said, ‘Hey, did you notice there was a bird up there?,'
" Froneberger said. "I looked up in a window of the stairwell and there was a
Cooper's hawk. I was, like, Oh, no! One of those fledglings flew into the
building."

That's exactly what happened. A pair of the aerobatic
raptors raised a clutch of four chicks this year in a nest up in one of the
beech trees lining the Sunken Garden. The nest was clearly visible from the
sidewalk in front of Washington Hall and the Cooper family became unofficial
summer mascots at the College of William and Mary. The parents and their nearly
independent offspring have been hanging around the old home tree since the
chicks left the nest in mid June. Someone had propped open a back door of the
building and one of the fledglings flew in.

Froneberger had gained some hands-on experience working with
birds since transferring from Thomas Nelson Community College to study biology
here at William & Mary. But those were bluebirds. The bird up on the
windowsill was a chicken-sized predator that eats bluebirds, as well as other passerine species. Froneberger
took out his cell phone and called Dan Cristol, professor of biology, for
advice.

"He told me how to catch the bird safely without hurting the
bird or hurting myself. Margaret went and got a stool for me, because the
window's kinda high. I had an extra t-shirt, so I threw the t-shirt over the
bird and caught it."

Froneberger got the t-shirt over the hawk's head in a single
toss. Once he had the hooded hawk in hand, the bird was even calmer than the birds
he worked with over two summers with Allyson Jackson, a grad student in biology
who tracks bluebirds with radio telemetry.

"It was a lot less dramatic than I expected it to be,"
Froneberger said. "It was like handling a bluebird, only bigger. To be honest,
I'd expect more of a fight from a bluebird."

By this time, the entire Spanish class had gathered in the
stairwell. The whole class trooped down the stairs together and went outside
for the release, but not before Froneberger gave a short impromptu lecture on
the species. Turner snapped a couple photos with Froneberger's cell phone. As
soon as the hawk was released, Ma and Pa Cooper swooped down to check on the
prodigal chick.

"It really ended up being a perfect scenario," Froneberer
said. "It wasn't harmed at all and the parents were right there."

Cristol says that Cooper's hawk parents will keep an eye on
their offspring for several months. Come fall, the hawks will migrate south,
but he added that he expects the parents to return to a nearby tree next spring
to raise a new clutch. Froneberger deserves high marks for his rescue efforts,
Cristol said.

"I give Josh an A plus for knowing to call me," he said. "He
also gets an A plus for being able to do the rescue himself—and not make me
come in to campus."